Land Act, 1927
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Transfer of the maintenance of embankments to county councils. |
21.—(1) The Land Commission with the concurrence of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health may if they deem it expedient so to do by order require a county council to undertake the cleansing or maintenance, but not including reconstruction, of any watercourse, drain, embankment or other similar work situate in their county, in respect of which a capital sum has before the passing of this Act been transferred by the Land Commission to the Public Trustee to be held and applied in accordance with any deed of trust or any scheme framed by the Land Commission or is hereafter transferred pursuant to the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 44 of the Land Act, 1923 , or in respect of which a capital sum retained and administered by the Land Commission shall hereafter be transferred to the Public Trustee to be held and applied in accordance with a scheme framed under this section and shall by the same or a subsequent order appoint the county council trustees of the deed of trust or scheme in place of the trustees thereof and the deed of trust or scheme shall be varied so far as necessary, or framed so as to provide for the application of the income of the capital sum in or towards the reimbursement to the county council of the expenditure properly and necessarily incurred in such cleansing or maintenance. | |
(2) A county council required under this section to undertake the cleansing or maintenance of any watercourse, drain, embankment or other work, shall have in relation thereto the like power of entry and of taking soil and materials and of doing necessary things as is conferred on the Land Commission by sub-section (4) of section 44 of the Land Act, 1923 . | ||
(3) The expenditure incurred by a county council under this section in the cleansing or maintenance of any watercourse, drain, embankment or other work shall be defrayed in the first instance out of the county fund and shall be raised by means of the poor rate as a county-at-large charge. Such expenditure shall be reimbursed in whole or in part out of income available under any deed of trust or scheme as aforesaid relating to the work on which such expenditure has been incurred and, in so far as such income shall prove insufficient, shall be reimbursed by means of an improvement rate assessed on the rated occupiers of the lands stated in an award made by the Land Commission to have been benefited by the work so cleansed or maintained in the proportions in which such lands are stated in such award to be liable to contribute to the improvement rate, which rate shall be made and shall be leviable payable and recoverable in like manner as if it were a drainage rate made under section 21 of the Arterial Drainage Act, 1925 . | ||
(4) Nothing in this section contained shall be taken to affect the powers of the Land Commission under section 44 of the Land Act, 1923 , with respect to the reconstruction of any watercourse, drain, embankment or other work the cleansing or maintenance of which a county council has been required to undertake in pursuance of this section. |